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Hi, just saw this.
You can either buy a dedicated digital video camera or a digital camera that shoots movies also (most point and shoot cameras do this, but the quality varies widely as does the length of time and quality that they shoot).
It sounds like length of time matters, but quality won't be all that important if it is only for Youtube.
However, you will get a better result if you use a digitial video camera (camcorder, DV cam, whatever you want to call it).
Video cameras can shoot to a variety of different media. Most popular are: DV tapes, Solid state memory cards (eg SD cards), hard disks, and DVDs.
Don't get one that shoots to DVD's as you will want to edit it if you are thinking of making clips for youtube.
Hard disks I think are the next least useful, as you are stuck with the size of the hard drive it is installed with. You have to transfer to your computer before you can erase the drive and start again (or you lose your stuff). This is a pain if you are shooting and didn't realise that you only had a certain amount of storage left (read: not enough!).
So go for either a DV tape camcorder, or one that shoots to memory cards. This way, the storage media are removable, and you can just pop another one in if you run out before you thought you would.
Now, you can either get standard definition, or high def camcorders. For Youtube you really don't need high def. But if you also want to make high def movies for your high def TV then you may want to consider this.
As Ferret so wisely pointed out, you want one with a firewire connection rather than just USB, because it has higher practical bandwidth than USB (even though USB has higher nominal bandwidth). So you won't have a problem with potential dropped frames.
And for the love of your god or goddess, fuck Windows Movie Maker off and get some decent software. Adobe Premiere Elements is cheap enough (under $100) and easy enough to use. And you might actually be happy with the results. :)
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